This invention relates to a portable and tampering-proof container or cassette for storing currency notes therein, with the cassette being used in association with an automated teller machine (ATM) or a cash dispensing machine, for example.
Stated briefly, to utilize an ATM, a customer inserts an identifying card into the machine to identify his account number, and then he enters certain data on the keyboard of the ATM to further identify himself and to indicate the amount of cash in the form of currency, for example, that he wishes to obtain from the ATM in a typical cash dispensing function. The ATM will then process the transaction, update the user's account to reflect the current cash withdrawal, dispense the requested currency, and return the identifying card to the customer as part of a routine operation.
The currency to be dispensed from an ATM is generally stored in a container or cassette which is inserted into the ATM and which positions the currency or bills to be withdrawn from the container by "picking" apparatus associated with the ATM as part of a routine cash dispensing described previously. Some of these cassettes are lockable and others are non-lockable.
These cassettes are loaded with currency or bills, generally at a central bank, and then the cassettes may be turned over to a security firm for delivery in armored vehicles, for example, to a location or branch bank at which an ATM is located. Personnel at the branch bank, for example, then insert the loaded cassette into the ATM.
In order to minimize the theft of currency from the cassettes which are exposed to the various people in the delivery and handling sequence mentioned in the previous paragraph, cassettes which are referred to as "secure" cassettes have been developed. These "secure" cassettes have, generally, complex mechanisms or electrical systems which prevent an unauthorized access into the cassette by the various people mentioned, for example, in the delivery and handling sequence mentioned.
In one prior-art cassette, for example, the associated shutter door (through which the bills pass when the cassette is positioned in operative relationship with an associated ATM) is locked or latched in a closed position after loading it with bills, and during transit in the handling sequence mentioned. As the cassette is positioned in operative relationship with the ATM, the shutter door is opened to permit the ATM to "pick" bills therefrom in a routine cash dispensing operation as described. When the number of bills remaining in the cassette reaches a predetermined low amount in normal operations, the ATM prevents further cash dispensing operations and gives an indication that another fully-loaded cassette is required. An authorized person then removes the partially-loaded cassette from the ATM prior to loading a fully-loaded one therein.
As the partially-loaded cassette is removed from the ATM, the shutter door closes and is latched in the closed position before the cassette is completely removed from the ATM. The cassette is designed so that the shutter door may be opened once (when put into an ATM, for example), and when it is taken out of the ATM, it is latched in the closed position so that it must be returned to the central bank for opening, refilling if necessary, and thereafter setting the associated latch so that it can be subjected to only one cycle of opening and closing as described. The partially-loaded, closed, and latched cassette is then forwarded to the central bank (in the example described) where the cassette is opened, filled with currency, and latched in the closed position.
When a cassette is inserted in an ATM, it is sometimes necessary to remove the cassette in order to clear out certain jams which may occur in the picker mechanism associated with the ATM, for example. When the prior-art cassette mentioned is removed from the ATM, the associated shutter door is latched in the closed position. This means that the cassette has to be returned to the central bank (in the example described) in order to have the cassette opened and re-latched. Because each cassette containing $20 bills, for example, may have up to about 60,000 (U.S.) dollars therein, a considerable amount of money may be involved in such return activities which do not represent a profitable use of money. While these cassettes are referred to as "secure" cassettes, it is obvious that the latch mechanisms mentioned do not prevent someone from taking the cassette and breaking it open to get the currency stored therein. Perhaps these "secure" cassettes should be viewed as efforts to eliminate "sophisticated pilfering" of the currency stored therein.